Around the Big Ten: Dave Wannstedt is ‘baffled’ by Northwestern firing Pat Fitzgerald
Dave Wannstedt has seen plenty in his nearly four decades along the sidelines, but what happened at Northwestern surprised the veteran coach. Now with Northwestern set to take on Rutgers football in six weeks, Wannstedt can’t help but wonder what happened with the Wildcats program that has led to this turmoil.
The firing of Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald over hazing allegations is certainly a messy situation. Complicating matters is that Northwestern had originally suspended Fitzgerald for two weeks, only to fire him a day later following a media backlash.
For Wannstedt, the firing doesn’t make sense. A head coach at the college level and in the NFL, he doesn’t see how any new evidence could have emerged between the time that Fitzgerald was suspended and then ultimately fired.
When asked this week if it was appropriate for Northwestern to fire Fitzgerald, the response from Wannstedt was clear.
“Not the way it was handled. Not at all, and I’m still kind of baffled as I think most of the alumni are as are most of the football community. How do you have a piece of information and you’re studying it for four months, and you make a decision and I’m assuming it’s a collective decision with a lot of different opinions from a lot of different areas,” Wannstedt said in an interview with NBC Sports Chicago.
“And here’s what we’re looking at.- what do we want to do about this? This is the decision (that was) made 24 hours later because of a newspaper article that I don’t believe that the paper that they were studying for four months changed, right? If that didn’t change, how do you go from two weeks suspension to firing somebody? That’s what makes no sense to me in this whole thing.
“And I don’t get it. I mean, that is that’s not the way to handle first-class business. And we know that Northwestern – I mean, as a first-class institution on all levels – and this is not good for them. I mean, I feel for the young people involved, I feel for Fitz and I feel for the school.”
The allegations around Northwestern surprised many given Fitzgerald’s stature within the program and the university as a whole.
Fitzgerald played as a linebacker at Northwestern before becoming head coach of the Wildcats in 2006. His head coaching tenure has been an unqualified success. During that time, Northwestern made 10 bowl games.
He had 110 wins and 101 losses in 17 seasons as head coach. His program won five bowl games during that time.
David Braun, hired in January as the team’s defensive coordinator, is now the interim head coach.
“To me what you need is you need stability right now, you know, and you need to have those players motivated and playing for the school. Right now. They’re playing for Northwestern you know, they’re playing for the ‘N’ on that helmet. Let’s get real. Let’s get right down to it. And, it’s not about the x and o’s. In my mind, it’s not about offense or defense,” Wannstedt said.
“It’s about getting those players, making sure that your coaches because their coaches will start working those phones, and where’s my next job? This isn’t gonna work out for me, and now all of a sudden – so, to me, what they really need is just somebody kind of put her arms around the players, somebody that can put their arms around the coaches and maybe the alumni I don’t know and, and get the most out of this situation that you possibly can in a positive way until they make a decision on the replacement.”
Braun’s first-ever game as a head coach at any level will be at Rutgers in the season opener for both teams. He is considered a young, exciting coach.
Wannstedt also appears on the Big Ten Network as an analyst.
